Liverpool v Real Madrid — predictions, team news, lineups

In the first round of the 2021/22 Cham­pi­ons League knock­out stage, Liv­er­pool and Real Madrid will meet again in the first leg of the last 16 at Anfield on Tuesday.

Jür­gen Klop­p’s side fin­ished sec­ond in Group A behind Italy’s Napoli and will face the cham­pi­ons after defeat­ing Celtic, Shakhtar Donet­sk and RB Leipzig.

While Vini­cius Junior’s goals and Thibaut Cour­tois’ sen­sa­tion­al saves dom­i­nat­ed the com­men­tary on last year’s Cham­pi­ons League final between Liv­er­pool and Real Madrid, the game at the Stade de France was a blast for Reds fans. 

will for­ev­er be over­shad­owed by the har­row­ing scene of being trapped out­side the gate and tear gassed before the game.

But Klop­p’s loy­al sup­port­ers can head into Tues­day’s match with renewed hope, after an inde­pen­dent report exon­er­at­ed Liv­er­pool sup­port­ers and said ‘pri­ma­ry respon­si­bil­i­ty’ lay with UEFA. 

Few teams can boast of over­tak­ing Napoli this sea­son, but goal dif­fer­ence was the only thing that sep­a­rat­ed the two sides in the Group A stand­ings, with Liv­er­pool scor­ing between a pos­si­ble 18 and 15, before giv­ing up to Parthenopei on open­ing day. They have won 5 straight from the humil­i­a­tion of los­ing 4–1.

Back-to-back Pre­mier League vic­to­ries over Ever­ton and New­cas­tle Unit­ed, the lat­ter thanks to goals from Dar­win Nunez and Cody Gakpo, see Liv­er­pool move into the top four and seem to have turned 2023 off their dis­mal start.

Klop­p’s team has only lost once in the last 16 of the Cham­pi­ons League in the past five years (to Real Madrid’s neigh­bor Atléti­co Madrid in 2019/20) and Liv­er­pool’s unbeat­en record at Anfield is unbeat­en. It’s been going great with 7 games so far.

Real Madrid, who left Chelsea, Paris Saint-Ger­main and Man­ches­ter City to win the Euro­pean Cup for a record 14th time, will be left out on the con­ti­nent despite their less-than-per­fect results in the group stage. I don’t think so.

A draw with Shakhtar Donet­sk and a loss to RB Leipzig put the Whites in dan­ger of fin­ish­ing as usu­al, but a 5–1 vic­to­ry over Celtic on the final day saw Leipzig pass Leipzig by one point. , and then the Club World Cup, adding anoth­er title to its illus­tri­ous tro­phy cabinet.

Car­lo Ancelot­ti’s side beat Osasuna 2–0 with sec­ond-half goals from Fed­eri­co Valverde and Mar­co Asen­sio to record their fourth straight La Liga win (only three shots in the first half). , the hopes of win­ning back-to-back league and Cham­pi­ons League titles have already come to an end.

Liv­er­pool fans are also hap­py with Real Madrid’s volatile away record.

Liv­er­pool’s defeat to Real Madrid in last sea­son’s final last­ed six games with­out a win in the Cham­pi­ons League, the longest ever for an oppo­nent with­out a win in the Cham­pi­ons League. Fans are even more jubi­lant at Anfield now that this cor­rup­tion seems to have ended.

Last week­end’s vic­to­ry over New­cas­tle came at a huge price, with Dar­win Nunez hav­ing been side­lined an hour ear­li­er with a sore shoulder.

If Nunez is absent, Dio­go Jota and Rober­to Firmi­no will have a tough fight to form the attack­ing line-up, but if Klopp uses Gakpo at cen­tre, the for­mer will win the head-to-head clash. like­ly to.

Luis Diaz, Ibrahi­ma Konate, Thi­a­go Alcan­tara and Calvin Ram­sey con­firm Liv­er­pool’s absence, Arthur remains out as he recov­ers from thigh surgery, and teenage Stephane Bajet­ic faces the Euro­pean cham­pi­ons. It seems that he will chal­lenge the bat­tle suit­able for the start­ing pitcher.

Mean­while, Real Madrid will be with­out star play­er Karim Ben­ze­ma, who did not play against Osasuna due to mus­cle fatigue. But Ancelot­ti hopes the Bal­lon d’Or win­ner will be per­fect­ly fit on Tues­day after get­ting some much-need­ed rest.

Else­where, key mid­field­ers Aure­lien Choua­meni and Toni Kroos are out due to ill­ness, leav­ing Eduar­do Camavin­ga and Dani Cebal­los the pos­si­bil­i­ty to play.